It is known to use laser excitation confocal imaging, a Nipkow disc scanner (which may be a microlens enhanced disc scanner) and a digital camera, to provide image data in two dimensions, and if controlled Z-axis movement is also provided, three dimensional image data can be obtained. Where a luminescent element is altering with time, a sequence of images can be obtained to provide data in four dimensions, (ie area, depth and time). Where possible, other parameters may also be changed or observed, including excitation wavelength, emission wavelength, polarisation, and/or emission lifetime.
One system which is capable of providing such data about microscopic specimens such as cells and tissue samples is the UltraVIEW live Cell Imager as produced and supplied by Perkin Elmer Life Sciences. This system uses a confocal laser microscope and CCD camera imaging system such as is described in a paper written by Kawamura Negishi Otsuki and Tomosada entitled Confocal Laser Microscope and CCD Camera, published in the Yokogawa Technical Report No. 33 (2002), English Edition and Yokogawa Patent No. EP 0539691 WO 9804946.
It is also known to use one or more lensless discs to achieve confocality as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,147,798 to Atto. Here rotation of the lensless disc or discs correspond to the rotation of the Nipkow disc(s).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,248,876 and WO 03/019242 describe another confocal scanning process in which a fixed pattern of pinholes are employed to scan in a linear manner. One complete scan using the pinhole array corresponds to rotation of the Nipkow disc(s).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,034,613 (Denk) describes another process, known as a 2 photon process, to limit the focal plane of activation and achieve confocality. Here one pulse from the excitation source equates to rotation of the Nipkow disc(s).
Another pinhole-based confocal scanning system is described in 1998 Opt-Leth 23(9): 655-657 in a report entitled Multifocal Multiphoton Microscopy by Beresdorf et al. Here one complete scan using the pinholes corresponds to rotation of the Nipkow disc(s).
A further confocal scanning system is described in US 2002/024007, EP 0911667, U.S. Pat. No. 5,587,832 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,483,641/EP 1207415. This system employs a controllable array of mirrors to synthesise an array of pinholes. Again one complete scan of the pinholes corresponds to rotation of the Nipkow disc(s).
Lastly transmission and reflective elements arranged in a random or quasi-random pattern can be used for confocal scanning as described in WO 97/31282 and WO 0043819 (Wilson et al). Again one complete scan of the transmission and reflective elements corresponds to the rotation of the Nipkow disc(s).
It is an object of the present invention to provide an imaging system which is an improvement over the systems currently in use and in particular over the current UltraVIEW system, and that described in the aforementioned Yokogawa Technical Report No. 33 (2002) and related Patents EP 0539691 and WO 9804946, EP 1245986, U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,751 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,808.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a control system for more accurately controlling the imaging and data capture process and a method of operation of such a system.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an improved method of capturing light from luminescing elements in a sample or specimen and converting the captured light into data for processing for analysis and/or display and/or storage for subsequent display and/or processing for analysis.